Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Shares Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares traded up 0.5% on Thursday after Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on the stock from $180.00 to $190.00. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Alphabet traded as high as $156.41 and last traded at $156.31. 4,959,656 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 29,900,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at $155.47.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on GOOGL. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $180.00 to $173.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $157.97.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.59, for a total value of $94,769.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 27,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,009,032.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.70, for a total transaction of $2,985,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,332,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,548,095.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. RWQ Financial Management Services Inc. now owns 61,499 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,591,000 after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.6% during the third quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 15,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,061,000 after buying an additional 1,385 shares during the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 8.0% during the third quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $998,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,416,533 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,908,000 after buying an additional 104,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 239.0% during the fourth quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 100,793 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,080,000 after buying an additional 71,057 shares during the last quarter. 40.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.94 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.95, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $145.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $140.29.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $70.77 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 24.01% and a return on equity of 27.22%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.05 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.